last night we went to a three year old winery called vermillion valley . it was on a very desolate road about 10 miles from oberlin. i booked this because the owners were very prominent retired teachers from oberlin.talking to them to get a feel for their friday crowed size they mentioned about 40 to 50 people. i prepped all pizza items based on friday and sunday sales projection. 85 dough balls,case of curd etc.i brought 50 with me thinking i may waste a few. i set up at three with start at 6 pm. i got a tour of the winery and many samples of their wines.this joint was laid out using as many environmental sustainable methods as possible to build and run the facility. i was floored by this building and grounds. i got he oven up to temp by 5 pm and told the owners to start selling.my crew was to show up at 6 pm. i figured i could handle the trickle of customers.wrong ,i was down 10 pies by 6 pm.i ended up having the rest of the 85 pieces of dough delivered out to me which we sold thru by 8:30. the owners said that the increase in business was because of the flame!! they booked us once a month thru october. their customer count was 150 vs the average of 50. we were very excited. it was quite exhilarating. a few pics. as you can see the conditions were less than ideal. oven had to sit pretty far from the work area. the truck wasn't at all level but it cooked spot on.

Awesome Larry,Great Pies , Great Gig and Repeat bus. You cannot ask for anything more! That a good daddy dad gift work for the mobile thru October and the private parties and connection from doing this will surley nbe a hit with pizza like that !John

I am new to this forum and just read this thread and wanted to share some info. Early in the thread there was talk about sinks. For those interested, there is a site called concessionsinks.com. Their moto is "buy it or build it". It uses a tankless water heater. I did purchase the plans and videos ($30) and will be building my own sink. It looks very complete, right down to the material list so its only ONE trip to the hardware store. Building your own should cost around $500-600...best guess.

the sink i purchased was around 900.00 and it is nsf approved which was a must with my health department. it has been very handy and adds a professional look to a job. last night we did a graduation for 150. here is my setup and pies

Way to Go Larry !! $cha-ching$ New tent/canopy ?? The Pies look great too! How many dough balls did you plow thru for 150 people???Thats your hand pulled Mozz.? or fiore di Latte? great article as well ! Hows you shaping up for August?

thanks, i am a hands on person. i believe in a independent business the customer want to see the owner. if i haven't made or baked the food i examine it before it hits the pass or carryout.we are very far from perfect but that is the goal. being in a college town the public thinks that summer business slow down because the students are not here. i made the decision 25 years ago not to be student dependent.our summer sales are always higher than school year sales, with the exception of graduation week. that is the reason i do not look at wood oven locations in the summer months. i have felt up to a few months ago that i would have to go into Cleveland to make wood fire pizza work as a restaurant.after all of the positive feedback I'm not sure that Lorain county cannot handle it. the man that built my mobile oven is working on a building in Lorain Ohio and had the developer contact me for a spot. 2800 hundred square feet.so that is a possibility. one more bit if information. the Lorain county fair is 8 miles south of oberlin in wellington Ohio.it draws 18,0000 people a day. i tried to get in as a vendor in January but there were no openings. a few week ago they got a cancellation and ask if i wanted in. i committed and am now trying to put my concession area together. john conklin has been helping me with ideas.this will be a major undertaking. i am pretty maxed out at my restaurant. my biggest wood event to date has been 350 people and the stress on my crew was big.to store supplies,make dough, pull mozzarella, along with manning this 10 hours a day for 7 days is monumental. what i want to do is make the pizza 9 to 10 inches cut it 4 and sell it in a nice heavy paper plate and sell it as a individual pizza. i know slices of pizza is the norm,but that would take away from the impact the fair could have on my wood fire pizza marketing. i am going to make pies and put pics up so i can get feedback and suggestions from the forum. if this goes well the profits along with profits from my mobile oven to date will go towards my Neapolitan oven. thanks for reading this and thanks to all of the awesome people that have input on this web site. that i have spent 15 days ans 44 minutes on .larry

Wow! How exciting, Larry. As a business owner, I can appreciated those "crazy" days when one works to the max, makes good, sweet money, then sleeps like a log . . . until the next big day, which for you is two solid weeks!!

I agree with sticking to whole pies only....it is consistent with the image and product you have done in the past and will do in the future. In addition, the sight of a whole pizza has a major impact and the people walking around the fair with the whole pie on the plate and eating it will be like walking billboards. "Where did you get that pizza from?!".

My middling pizza stand at a weekly market is highly impacted by this. I'd say roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of customers on a given Sunday mention they saw someone with one of the pizzas walking around and asked where they got it.

Have you looked at obtaining cardboard rounds? They come in 10" and 12" sizes. With a single piece of food service foil wrapped over top, these are very sturdy to place a pie on and you do not get the dip/sag in the pizza from the lip of the paper plate being under it. Down here it breaks down to about .0424 per pie round. More than a paper plate in cost, but much sturdier and the pizzas look good because they lay completely flat on them.

pizzablogger i am going to give the rounds a try. as of now for the up coming fair i am looking at a heavy paper plate that has a 9.5 inch flat area with a rim.i am thinking of using 7 to 8 ounces of dough and doing a 9 inch individual pie.my price as of now will be 7.50 looking at what is being charged for two slices at some of the other fairs before i finalize.anyway ,i wanted to put up pictures of my first test pies and get some feedback. same day dough using 8 ounces, 2.5 ounces of cheese, 4 basil leaves, 2 ounces of sauce,evoo and grated cheese. do the members think a 7.50 per pie in reasonable? a few pictures

All day long Larry!!! make it $8. forget those pesky quarters! Looks like plenty of cheese thats for sure. Jeff borofsky charges $10 -$12 for that size, dont be shy. What you are doing and your product is worth it ! John